Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Vegemite, ice-coffee and BBQs all in the cross-hairs as halal certification fallout continues

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Boycott Halal in Australia

Vegemite is the latest brand to be targeted by an ongoing campaign to boycott halal-certified products, with a member of federal parliament also entering the fray as the fallout from the anti-halal movement continues.

The iconic Australian spread is latest company to draw the attention of an online network of anti-Islam campaigning groups, which SmartCompany recently revealed had political ties to One Nation and were deliberately targeting Australian businesses in an organised social media assault.

National Party MP George Christensen has suggested in a blog post the halal certification fee paid by Vegemite in order to sell its products to Muslim customers is funding organisations with extremist views and activities in Australia. “It’s lovely to know a jar of the salty black stuff is sponsoring the advocacy of robbing women of all of their marital property rights,” Christensen said.

The coalition backbencher said because the products were not clearly labelled as halal, customers were forced to complain. “This is exactly what many consumers are now doing and the commentariat are condemning; they are exercising their rights as consumers,” he said.

Mike Holt, chief executive officer of the Queensland-based anti-Islam lobby group Restore Australia and former One Nation candidate, previously told SmartCompany a network of anti-Islam groups were responsible for the online attacks against a number of Australian businesses. “What we do is target companies and if we coordinate that protest, it has much bigger effect. They start to see all backlash against it,” said Holt.

The ongoing campaign has gathered momentum in recent weeks, with one of the key Facebook groups, Boycott Halal Australia, now boasting more than 36,000 followers – rising by 3000 likes in just over a week.

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Turkish Parliament report: 88% of attacks on German mosques unsolved

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mevlana Mosque arsonA report released by Parliament’s Human Rights Commission following the burning of three mosques in Germany in August has reached interesting conclusions in its study of Islamophobia in Germany, revealing that the vast majority of perpetrators of such crimes have gone unpunished.

Human Rights Commission President Ayhan Sefer Üstün reported on the comprehensive research carried out in Germany. The parliamentary report states that of the 297 attacks on mosques from 2001 to the present day, 244 (88 percent) of the crimes’ suspects or perpetrators have not been captured. According to the report, “A large portion of these attacks on mosques remain unpunished … opening the way for fear, worry and insecurity among members of the Muslim population.”

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MEND / Unite Against Fascism roundtable event

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Diane Abbott MP, Muslim community groups and NGO’s come together to tackle Islamophobia

Tackling Islamophobia: Roundtable panel discussion in Parliament

3-5pm Thursday 20 November 2014
Committee Room 16
House of Commons

Unite Against Fascism and MEND (Muslim Engagement & Development) have called a roundtable event in Parliament as part of November’s Islamophobia Awareness Month (IAM). The event is an opportunity to address some of the pressing issues facing the Muslim community with a diverse panel that will take up matters including government policy regarding the Muslim community, the rise in Islamophobic hate crimes, policing and the Muslim community and the impact of the media portrayals of Islam and Muslims.

Islamophobia has been rising at an alarming rate over recent years. In London alone, from April 2013 to March 2014, we have seen a rise of 69% in Islamophobic crimes with the Met Police observing an eightfold increase in anti-Muslim attacks in the two weeks following Lee Rigby’s murder. During the last twelve months, the Metropolitan Police have recorded 573 Islamophobic crimes in London. Given that 43% of all hate crimes go unreported (Crime Survey for England and Wales), the actual number of Islamophobic crimes is undoubtedly much higher. Unlike most incidents of hate crime, which overwhelmingly involve male perpetrators and victims, Teeside University have found that the majority of the victims of Islamophobic attacks are female.

The round table will focus on key demands to the Government, policy makers, and parliamentarians to deal more effectively with Islamophobia, including statutory responses and responsibilities, measures to improve policing and better legislation to protect faith-based communities.

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‘UK foreign policy to blame for sense of hatred, alienation of young Muslims’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The main threat to UK home security is presented by young alienated Muslims who are under constant surveillance and harassment by the government, but not those citizens who went to Syria or Iraq and came back, political commentator Chris Bambery told RT.

RT: MI5 is worried that extremists are plotting to kill a police officer on the streets of the UK. Is there really a way to prevent such an attack?

Chris Bambery: MI5, MI6 are among the most sophisticated security services in the world, working hand-in-hand with the CIA, the NSA and other American security agencies and they have a track record of stopping this. Britons spend millions of pounds on this and on surveillance. We are one of the most surveyed states in the world, the highest number of CCTV cameras in any country in the world. Yes, it can be stopped.

The question here is that for over a decade under the supported “war on terror” we have seen legislation being passed which simply makes things which were previously illegal, illegal again. It is if you murder someone anywhere in the world, it is murder. You don’t need extra legislation to make that murder again. What we have discovered is not that we just rushed through this legislation but sneaked inside it clauses which allow for instant surveillance on social media, telephone calls, and erosion of liberty.

And the police officers have said this has been going on, this is the price that has to be paid. Well, this has been going on for over a decade, and regards the so-called “war on terror,” and prior to that in terms of what was happening in Northern Ireland and the struggle against the republicans. So we have seen an erosion of civil liberties in this country.

The current scare is about supposed jihadists returning from Syria and Iraq to wage war on our streets. May I just ask this? These people went to Syria, they were under surveillance from MI5, MI6 since the moment they left their home and they are under surveillance from the Turkish secret intelligence at the moment they arrived in Turkey and travelled through it, British intelligence knows who they are, they are not just going to come up to Heathrow Airport and be welcomed back into the country. If they are guilty of war crimes, in they are guilty of murders, there are already laws to apply, and we don’t need new laws. What the threat here is, if there is any threat, is from alienated young Muslims in this country. Tony Blair was warned of this back in 2003 when he took us into the invasion of Iraq, that the domestic terrorism would be the blowback as a consequence of that. Therefore, you have to turn and see that it is the British policy which is to blame.

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Racist EDL not welcome in Luton this Saturday

Posted on by Bob Pitt

We are Luton

SATURDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2014
TIME: 12PM
ASSEMBLE OUTSIDE BURY PARK COMMUNITY CENTRE, DUNSTABLE ROAD, LU1 1BW

EDL Not welcome in Luton!

The racist and Islamophobic EDL have announced that they will hold an Islamophobic demonstration, in Luton on 22 November.

In April and May 2009 the violent and racist EDL held its first protests in Luton. Such mobilisations saw hundreds of thugs rampage through the town attacking the Asian community. Since then the EDL has held a number of protests around Britain. They’ve attacked people and protesters, caused damage to buildings and smashed up a Hindu temple in Dudley when they couldn’t get close to the mosque.

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Rochdale’s Muslim community say they face ‘unprecedented and unacceptable’ racism after town’s grooming scandal

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Members of the Muslim community say they are facing ‘unprecedented and unacceptable’ racism in Rochdale – and are calling on all parts of society to take a stand against Islamophobia.

A group of local leaders have come together to speak out about the rise in violence and discrimination they say Asian people have been subjected to following the town’s grooming scandal.

They say the ‘excessive’ focus on the ethnicity and religion of non-white sex offenders has led to the ‘stigmatisation’ of their community – meaning that Islamophobia is now an ‘acceptable norm’.

The group, a coalition of local leaders under the name of Rochdale Muslim Community, say they now want to work with people in the town to eradicate the hatred.

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Quarter of Charity Commission inquiries target Muslim groups

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Claystone Muslim charities reportMore than a quarter of the statutory investigations that have been launched by the Charity Commission since April 2012 and remain open have targeted Muslim organisations, an analysis by the Guardian can reveal – drawing criticism from Islamic groups that they are being unfairly singled out.

Responses to freedom of information requests show that more than 20 of the 76 live investigations focus on Muslim charities associated with running mosques, providing humanitarian relief and, in a number of high-profile cases, aid efforts in Syria.

Full statutory inquiries – the commission’s most serious kind of formal investigation – have begun into five British charities operating in Syria, including al-Fatiha Global, which the beheaded hostage Alan Henning was working with when he was kidnapped. The others are Children in Deen, Aid Convoy, Human Aid and Syria Aid. All five inquiries remain open.

Adam Belaon, research director for the thinktank Claystone, which focuses on Muslim issues, said: “[The commission] has labelled 55 charities with the issue code ‘extremism and radicalisation’ without their knowledge, in the period 5 December 2012 to 8 May 2014. These charities were/are being monitored as a potential concern for matters relating to extremism and radicalisation.

“There are no written criteria for applying or removing this label and thus it lends itself to non-evidence based targeting of particular groups. We don’t know the criteria used to apply these extremist tags by the commission. It’s all very subjective for a quasi-judicial body.”

In a report released on Monday, Belaon says charities often appear to be seen as “guilty by association”. Some charities, he said, had been questioned at length about their links with certain Islamic preachers.

Claystone said it had particular concerns over comments made by the commission chair, Sir William Shawcross, who in his first interview in the post said Islamic extremism was a “deadly” problem for charities.

In the past Shawcross has been a critic of Islam. In 2012, as a director at the conservative Henry Jackson Society, he claimed: “Europe and Islam is one of the greatest, most terrifying problems of our future. I think all European countries have vastly, very quickly growing Islamic populations.”

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‘Hooligans against Salafists’ hold anti‑Islam demonstration in Hanover

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Demo Hooligans gegen Salafisten - ProtesteHundreds of Germans, self-styled hooligans and far-right extremists, gathered in a controversial rally in Hanover on Saturday.

The demonstrators shouted racist slogans: “Germany for the Germans,” “Foreigners out,” “Germany wake up,” during the “Europe against the terror of Islam” rally, organized by a recently formed group “Hooligans against Salafists,” an alliance of hooligans and neo-Nazis, also known as the HoGeSa.

The police have taken heavy security measures in Hanover on Saturday after violent clashes took place in Cologne last month in the first major protest of the extremist group. A series of confrontations occurred during the day when some of the demonstrators tried to break through the barricades; police used pepper spray on several protesters.

On the same day, leftist and anti-fascist groups held counter-demonstrations in the eastern part of the city. Green Party lawmaker and Deputy Speaker of the German Parliament Claudia Roth and Social Democrat mayor of Hannover, Stefan Schostok were among the politicians who participated at the counter-demonstrations.

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Rochester: Britain First march blocked by anti-fascists

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rochester demonstration against Britain First

Members of far right group Britain First have left Rochester following a protest which brought the town to a standstill.

About 50-70 supporters of Britain First gathered outside the town’s train station at 1.15pm today to exercise their right to free speech. But they were greeted by a group of local people and activists, numbering nearer 300.

The right-wing group is standing candidate Jayda Fransen in the upcoming Rochester and Strood by-election.

Dozens of police officers were at the scene to oversee the march and protest. Officers eventually let the group march up the High Street but they only got a short distance before there was a stand-off outside The Queen Charlotte pub at about 2.40pm.

At 3.45pm, witnesses said Britain First members had tried to break through the police line leading to ugly scenes. They were driven back down the high street and moved to Corporation Street. Britain First members finally left town just after 4pm. It’s understood no arrests were made.

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